Mirror's Edge
by Speedy1236
Summary: Secret GUN material and the Master Emerald get stolen by - a blue hedgehog? Sonic thinks proving his innocence is trouble… until he gets caught in a cunning trap of an old foe. With Sonic lost and on his own, Tails suddenly turned a target and Knuckles over his head in between his duty and his friends, can the trio see through the scheme in time to save each other... and the world?
1. Criminal's Morning Routine

**Criminal's Morning Routine  
**

A light and still cool breeze brushed through the leaves of the lonesome tree. The grass of the hills surrounding it was full with the sparkles of a mild night's dew and now began to twinkle like an ocean of diamonds in the orange light of the rising sun.

Sonic the Hedgehog yawned unabashedly and stretched his arms over his head, then he flopped back into a relaxed position on a thick branch, his right leg dangling freely and his quills flattened against the tree's stem.

Through the leaves around him, the blue hedgehog watched the sun crawl up behind the distant hills. In the small valleys between them, a slight fog gently levitated in ghostly wisps until the spreading warmth of the beginning day broke through the misty shapes and they fell apart, leaving only a soft haze behind. As the sun rose higher, it started to reach the haze and turned it to a glowing coat spread across the fields. In the distance, the carved-in-rock form of a Mobius loop was throwing a long shadow with a light hole.

Sonic sat up on the branch he'd spent the night on, swung his left leg over it and slid down to land on the ground. His sneakers left deep footprints in the damp grass as he slowly walked away from the tree. For a moment the hedgehog overlooked the green hills from where he stood and a small grin formed on his face.

This was going to be a great day for some running. Sonic felt his grin broaden at the self-amused notion that this wasn't saying much. Of course, in his eyes almost every day was a great day for running. Not only that it was his favorite thing to do, it also, in a way, served a deeper purpose, if he could call it that. Mornings like this one reminded him of how much there was to see in the world, how much there was to explore, and yet so little time to do it. Moments like this one were short, and he wouldn't want to risk missing on them.

And of course, running was also great training. After all, he had to be fit when the notorious Dr. Eggman turned up again and started another plan to take over the planet. Sonic chuckled lightly. He'd not seen Eggman for a while, but as far as the hedgehog was concerned that usually meant the crazed scientist was brewing one of his oh so awesome plans again. It was just a matter of time until he'd be back. If he was to be serious, Sonic wouldn't want it any other way. No matter how annoying Eggman was, he sure made his life more interesting…

Still standing atop the hill, Sonic wondered where to go first now. Leading a free life like his meant you could almost always go wherever you wanted. You could go _everywhere_… and sometimes Sonic just couldn't decide which part of everywhere he wanted to see first.

His right hand felt over his stomach as it gave out a loud, hungry growl. There was a distinct hole in it. The hungry noise sounded again and the hedgehog laughed a little. Getting some breakfast first was a great idea, actually. Sonic's head briefly turned around as he orientated himself, then he picked a direction and fell into a jog, the wind in his wake tearing the haze asunder and shaking the dew off the grass blades.

Metropolis was something like two hundred miles to the north. A relaxed little morning run.

* * *

A light gurgling sounded from where the water of the small creek fell about half a meter into an almost round pond, only a meter deep and so crystal clear that the ground covered with hundreds of roundish pebbles appeared as if seen through glass. Just the tiny movements of the surface showed the water wasn't all as still as it looked.

When Knuckles' bare hands dived into it, dozens of circular waves ran over the pond's surface. Sitting on his knees next to it, the red echidna leaned down towards the water, gathering some up in his hands to splash on his face. A light shiver ran through the guardian's body at the cold of it, but he smiled a little as his hands dived back into the water. While almost too cold for a morning clean-up like most of Angel Island's creeks, it had just that exact temperature that made water the most refreshing to drink. Knuckles swallowed it slowly, savouring how it tasted of the fresh winds up in the mountains and the blue ice of the glaciers.

When he had quenched his thirst, the echidna reached for his gloves and pulled them back on. He yawned and stretched his arms to the side, attempting to chase the last remains of sleep out of his body, then he started his walk along a narrow path that led him along the creek for a minute before angling through the forest, past the giant mushrooms, up a gentle hill and out onto a large clearing.

Knuckles followed the treeline to the very top of the hill, stopping there just briefly to let his gaze trail over the grassy hills. They shone in bright green, untouched and peaceful. Knuckles was about to nod to himself and just enjoy the calm mood when he spotted a blue streak rushing over the hills at what was at the moment Knuckles' horizon, probably five hundred meters from his position.

"Is that Sonic?" The guardian had not seen the hedgehog in a while, and usually it was easy to tell when he was about to 'drop in' as he used to call it way before he set a foot on the island. The biplane Sonic and his little friend Tails used wasn't exactly a stealthy or particularly quiet vehicle. But as the echidna thought about it, he found it was a little early for one of their visits.

Knuckles frowned, following the blue blur with his eyes. It raced past the point across of him, down a hill and into the forest at the other side of the grass hills. It had just disappeared from Knuckles' sight when the shockwave reached his position.

The echidna winced, eyes narrowed and hands pressed to the sides of his head. Yeah, he knew only on person who could get as close to shattering his eardrums just by running by…

What left the question of what Sonic wanted here so early in the morning. As it looked, he was heading straight for the Temple of Chaos. Had something bad happened? Eggman, perhaps? And where was Tails with his biplane? Normally, they landed near the Temple.

Deciding he wouldn't get answers until he reached Sonic, Knuckles started running after him. He didn't exactly have a chance to catch him. Even with the advantage of knowing the territory better than anyone else, Knuckles knew he didn't stand, or rather run, a chance against the blue hedgehog. But he knew Sonic usually only came here in search for him, and the Master Emerald shrine was admittedly the first best place to start looking for him.

The guardian was not very far from the temple when a momentarily totally unexpected sensation hit him so hard and so out of the blue that it resembled the feel of a hammer impact against his skull. _Intrusion_. Without needing to see anything of it, Knuckles could feel the sacred Emerald being grabbed, not touched, grabbed, with brute force and against its liking. He could feel it being lifted from its socket, violently removed from its rightmost place, its sanctuary.

Knuckles gasped in a sharp breath, speeding up his steps. He didn't need to ignore the feeling of branches snapping into his face and against his body as he tore through the forest. He hardly even noticed it. He only heard the hum of the Master's energy flowing through the very ground of the island growing weaker and weaker. In a few minutes it would be gone and the island would fall into the ocean. And he heard the Master Emerald's cries, its horror, the whole _wrongness_ of the displacement. His friendly visitor was almost forgotten already again. Someone bad was taking the Emerald. And he had to be stopped at all costs.

He was closing in, he could feel it, and he was closing in _quickly_. Still, where was his superfast blue hedgehog friend when he could actually be of use for once?

The question was answered suddenly, and nothing to Knuckles' liking. When the echidna burst out of the forest and onto the meadow around the Temple of Chaos, the blue hedgehog stood at the bottom of the stairs, holding the Master Emerald up with both hands.

Knuckles stopped as suddenly as if he'd run into a non-existent wall. Mouth open, he stared at the hedgehog and the glowing green gemstone. "Sonic? What…?"

Sonic turned his head just for a second, acknowledging Knuckles was there, then he was gone, accelerating so fast it seemed he'd vanished into thin air. The second sonic boom he heard today mutilated Knuckles' ears and the blur of blue tore a straight line into the bushes it moved through.

Towards the edge.

There wasn't time to think and understand what was going on. Knuckles shook himself out of his frozen position and hurried after the fleeting hedgehog and the Master Emerald. The little rational part of his brain that was still working at the moment told him it was a race lost before he even started running, but he had to try.

When he stumbled out of the forest just a minute later, it was a new personal record for the distance. His lungs were burning, his head pounded with each of his way too fast heartbeats and his legs ached, but he could still see that streak of blue.

He wouldn't catch him anyway. He had barely caught a proper look of him again when Sonic rushed over the edge and disappeared from view.

Knuckles reached the edge five or six long seconds later, skid to a stop next to it, just to look down and check where Sonic had gone. Several kilometers below, the deep blue of the ocean twinkled at the echidna with no clouds in between. But both Sonic and the Master Emerald were gone.

_How?_ The guardian stared down. Sonic couldn't fly. Neither could he swim, and if there was a plane or other vehicle he'd have heard or seen it. It was as if the very air had swallowed him up.

Shoving these thoughts aside, Knuckles considered his options. He could jump after him and try to catch him gliding, but he didn't know which way to take, there was nothing to land right below and in a few minutes the Floating Island would fall into the sea. As much as he felt the urge to follow the thief, the traitor that had so awfully betrayed his trust and friendship, how much worth was a guardian if the island ended up falling on top of him?

Knuckles shook his head. Survival first. And then… He didn't know. He didn't understand. Nothing made sense anymore…

The echidna gulped. He knew one thing with a crushing clarity, though.

He'd failed.

* * *

Sonic slowed down when the skyline of Metropolis appeared at the horizon. As much as supersonic running was a cool feat, he didn't want to get charged with a penalty if his sonic boom broke the glass of people's windows…So, the hedgehog reduced his pace to a relaxed jog again. It still made him faster than any car or vehicle, anyway.

Five minutes later Sonic had reached the city center and slowed down completely to slowly stroll through the street in search of a bakery he could get his breakfast from. He has just spotted a promising candidate at the next corner when police sirens sounded behind him.

His quills gave out a ruffling noise as Sonic's head whirled around. Behind him, two police cars had stopped, their front doors open, and two Mobians in uniform per car had gotten out onto the street and where pointing their handguns at him.

"Sonic the hedgehog, you are under arrest!", one of them shouted.

Sonic blinked, flicking his pointed ears. "Excuse me? What did I do? No supersonic running near the city, I swear!"

"Stop fooling around.! You have been filmed stealing GUN's secret material on the construction of Chaos Drives. Surrender yourself!"

Sonic groaned. "You got the wrong hedgehog. What would I do with something like that? I don't need any Chaos Drives. I suggest you go ask Shadow... and he doesn't even look _that_ much like me!"

"Agent Shadow has an alibi. I repeat just that one time: Surrender yourself peacefully." The policeman, a well rounded fat cat that should get some more exercise in Sonic's opinion, gestured around with his pistol.

"No thanks." Sonic shook his head. "This hedgehog doesn't go to jail for anything he didn't do." He waved at the officers. "We'll play a game of tag. See ya, guys!"

"No, freeze!"

Sonic did the exact opposite: He whirled around and broke into a run. From behind he could hear the policemen scrambling back into their cars to follow him. _So much about healthy exercise._ Sonic cleared the next corner, throwing a short, longing glance at the bakery, then focused on the long straight road in front of him, and boosted.

The blue hedgehog didn't waste the time to confuse his persecutors by changing directions often. He just took the direct way out of town, and then started running in different directions out in the open fields surrounding it where he had more space. When he checked behind himself, the police cars were long gone of course, but he kept up his speedy changes of directions for a little longer just to be sure no-one was following him anymore.

Now completely awake for sure, his mental gears were working as fast as his feet. Someone had stolen GUN's Chaos Drives. No, not the drives themselves but some kind of secret stuff on how you made Chaos Drives. And they had filmed that thief.

And for some reason, they thought he was the thief.

This in itself didn't even confuse Sonic that much. He didn't exactly consider the Mobian authorities particularly intelligent. No-one there ever managed to find a way dealing with Eggman, or with any other crisis for that matter. And when Shadow appeared the first time and stole a Chaos Emerald, they arrested Sonic for it. It felt like deja-vú.

Most of the time if he thought about it, Sonic laughed at the ridiculousness of it. Really, black hedgehog – blue hedgehog. It shouldn't be that hard to see. Even on a black and white picture you could clearly see Shadow's turned up quills, while Sonic's own curved downwards. It was more than obvious. To Sonic at least.

But aside of his amusement about GUN's failures, there were other feelings that lingered in the back of Sonic's mind now that he was reminded of the events about a year and a half ago. It was what really had made him want to run instead of talking to the police and figuring things out that way. There was something currently not too dormant burning in Sonic's chest; something he would almost call fear.

They had taken him to their Prison Island. They had locked him in a cell. A small room without windows, just blank concrete and metal bars. And no matter how much Sonic had strained himself to look unaffected, behind the mask of put-on casualness he'd been terrified. Locked up. In a _cage_.

There was nothing, _nothing_, Sonic needed more than his freedom. He needed space to run, to feel the wind, to breathe. To _live_. Neither of those fundamental things had been in the prison cell. Being locked up felt almost like being stuck underwater and feeling your air running out with no bubbles or the surface in sight. Suffocating, slowly draining your life away.

Getting out of the cell and running across the platforms of Metal Harbor, feeling the wind brush through his spines again and smelling the sea, had been just as relieving as breaking though the water surface and gulping in a lungful of fresh air. It _revived_ him.

No, Sonic never ever wanted to be locked up again. He had made an agreement with himself on that one. He would never let anyone lock him into a tiny room ever again.

Of course, he knew that even he, fastest thing alive or not, couldn't run away forever. He had to find out what was going on. The best would of course be he found out who stole this apparently top-secret material so GUN could arrest someone else…

The blue hedgehog sighed. He was sure there was no-one on his heels anymore. By now, he had been running far enough from the city to reach a tropical jungle. Thick leaves shaded his path from overhead and a lot of giant trees stood in the way. Sonic didn't mind. While he couldn't go full speed here any more, the jungle would make him invisible.

So, where to go from here? He needed to find out what was going on, and he needed someone he could trust to help him to get to the bottom of things. He needed…

_Tails_.

Sonic nodded to himself and turned in the direction where he roughly knew the Mystic Ruins would be.


	2. Under Suspicion

**Under Suspicion**

Tails sighed and adjusted his rucksack. The straps heavily weighted down on his shoulders. No surprise here, the bag was full of technical equipment, or rather what would become parts of technical equipment. Cables, material for transistors and capacitors, stuff for isolation… In short, it was full of a lot of parts he needed for the Tornado. His trusty biplane was undergoing a complete overhaul at the moment.

For now satisfied with the contribution of weight on his back, the two-tailed fox continued his walk, heading back towards the railway station. The streets of Station Square were rather empty at the moment. Also the shops had not been too full. The morning rush hour was just over and by noon he would be long gone again. Tails preferred his shopping trips that way; it spared him a lot of useless waiting time and he would be back home faster.

He stopped at an intersection, watching the cars slowly drive past him, looking for a good moment to cross the road. He had already put one foot on the pavement of the street when a voice called from behind him.

"Miles Prower?!"

Tails stopped and withdrew his foot, turning over his shoulder in surprise. Nobody called him by his real name. It was always just 'Tails'. "Excuse me?"

A tall white bear held out his wallet at him, briefly flipping it open. If it was meant to actually show him anything in it remained obscure to Tails; all he could glimpse in the short moment was something reflecting the sunlight in it. "Lieutenant MacDim, GUN. We have a few questions. You are to follow me immediately." His tone made clear he wouldn't accept no for an answer.

"Uh, okay… What's it about?" Tails turned fully around, his namesakes beginning to nervously play behind his back. He didn't like being with strangers much, authoritarian strangers even less. _I wish Sonic was here_, he thought. The hedgehog would surely have some wise-crack comeback that would sufficiently silence the GUN guy.

"I am not authorized to tell you," was the only reply Tails got to his question. The bear led him silently along the road and up to a parking lot. He stopped next to a rather large, black car. Even the windows were black, not allowing Tails to catch a look inside. The GUN Lieutenant opened the back door of the car, gesturing to Tails to get inside.

The fox gulped. Should he refuse? After all, GUN weren't exactly close friends, what if they were up to something bad? But… something about this whole thing had made Tails curious. After all, Sonic wouldn't hesitate to hop in the car, would he?

No. And he wouldn't either.

Tails nodded to no-one but himself and slipped past the bear into the fond of the vehicle. In trying to handle his large rucksack he ended up flopping into the leather cushioning of the seats. He looked around and his eyes stopped on the person sitting across of him on the rearwards facing seats.

She was an unusual sight to say the least. Her fur was snow-white, her ears twice as big as his own, also not particularly small ones. Her face wore a smug smirk, with lip-gloss glittering around her mouth and her turquoise eyes twinkled in what looked like distant amusement. Instead of some sort of everyday clothing for Mobian females, her shaped body was dressed in a black jump suit and her feet stuck in white long-shafted, high-heeled boots.

"Rouge!"

The bat's smirk grew to a smile. "Correct. Good morning, honey."

"What's going on?", Tails asked, distractedly noticing the Lieutenant had also climbed into the car and now took a seat next to Rouge.

The treasure huntress and part-time GUN agent shrugged, crossing her legs leisurely at the knees. "It happens my superiors are throwing a real riot about finding that blue hedgehog pal of yours."

"Sonic?" Tails blinked.

Rouge lazily waved her hand. "Unless you happen to have any other blue hedgehog friends, yes, Sonic. You haven't seen him recently?"

"What do you want?", Tails asked instead of answering her.

"Sonic the Hedgehog is suspect to have stolen GUN top secret material," MacDim cut in before Rouge had a change to reply.

Tails' jaw dropped for a moment, then reproach managed to slip onto his features. "Sonic doesn't do such a thing!"

"You are not in the position to decide that," the bear gave back harshly. "You might as well be a comrade of his."

Tails sucked in a breath. "I –"

"Have you seen Sonic?", Rouge interrupted, her tone still calm and with this typical superior professionalism in it Tails had never seen on anyone else.

"What was it that was being stolen?" Tails simply skipped on the bat's question.

MacDim was about to get at the fox again, but Rouge shut him off with a wave of her hand. "A bunch of top secret data sheets about the construction of Chaos Drives," she informed Tails.

The young fox felt his eyes widen. "Of Chaos Drives," he echoed. "And… what makes you think Sonic did that? What would he even want with that sort of data?"

"We captured evidence of his deeds on a surveillance camera," the Lieutenant said. "By the way, where were _you_ yesterday evening?"

Tails' double tails thudded the seat next to him. "At my house in the Mystic Ruins. I'm working on the Tornado; I'm doing a complete overhaul of it and-"

"Anyone can prove that?"

Tails shrugged slightly nervously. "Uh, a thousand of disassembled aircraft parts in the workshop?"

Apparently not caring much about the given answer, the bear already fired the next question at Tails. "What are you doing in Station Square?"

"Shopping for stuff I needed to rebuild and improve my plane," Tails replied, trying to stay calm. This was getting ridiculous.

"What's in that bag?"

The fox groaned. "What do you think? The stuff I was shopping for. I was just about to head to the station to go back home."

MacDim's eyes turned piercing. "Why not use that plane you mentioned? Is maybe Sonic using it?"

"No, he's not." Tails shook his head, still trying to decide if he was more worried or annoyed. "I told you already. I'm rebuilding the plane. It's in pieces. No, it doesn't fly around. Not today, and not yesterday either. Okay?"

Leaned casually into her seat, Rouge giggled quietly. MacDim however skipped on Tails' input again. "Now have you anything to say to the subject's whereabouts?"

Tails exasperatedly shook his head. "And you're really sure it's Sonic? Just asking, 'cause you know, you guys already mistook someone else for him before…"

A smirk dashed over Rouge's face and MacDim ground his teeth. "Be careful what you say…"

"Do you have any idea what Sonic could be up to with the data?", Rouge continued the conversation, once again ignoring her colleague. If he even was that.

"You really think he did that?" Tails frowned at the bat. GUN, yeah, they weren't exactly all that smart. But he'd thought of Rouge in better terms, not particularly on her trustworthiness, but at least on her sense of realism.

She shrugged. "Not really. Actually, I think this is a stupid idea, but I was tasked with the investigation and they wanted me to investigate in this direction primarily, so… Let's just treat the question hypothetically, shall we?"

"Uh, okay." Tails scratched his head. Hypothetical sounded bearable, even if no less idiotic. "But really, Sonic wouldn't have any use for a Chaos Drive construction sheet or whatever you guys lost. He's not exactly an inventor. He wouldn't even know what to do with a data sheet. Sonic doesn't build stuff. That's my thing, actually."

"I told you," MacDim spoke up again, turning to Rouge. "He's involved in it! Maybe even the driving force! We have to arrest –"

"We arrest nobody right now, Lieutenant." Rouge shook her head, eyes for a moment trading the hidden mirth for a sharp glare that was only insufficiently concealed by her long eye lashes. "Am I clear?"

"Yes, Ma'am…", the bear grumbled, sitting back on his seat heavily.

A smirk was still playing around Rouge's lips when she turned back to Tails, the glare already faded to make place for that look that suggested she found at least mild entertainment in the situation. "Fine. If Sonic doesn't have use for this stuff, would you, just hypothetically again, have use for it?"

Tails firmly shook his head. "For a Chaos Drive? No thanks. The things are lame."

"What?", MacDim piped up again in spite of having just been ticked off.

Tails found a smirk form on his face now for the first time since he was here. Finally he was starting to feel a little more as if he had the situation in his hands. "Asking me if I could use a plan on how to make Chaos Drives is… like asking the inventor of a fighter jet if he needs a plan on how to fold a paper flyer."

Rouge stifled a laugh, but MacDim leaned closer to Tails, rubbing the back of his head. "You are implying?"

"He's implying he's playing in a different league than Chaos Drives…", Rouge trailed.

"I am," Tails nodded, inwardly grinning about the slow GUN Lieutenant. "I've been making own Chaos Emerald copies, with almost the same energetic properties as the real ones. A Chaos Drive isn't really interesting to me."

Rouge shrugged. "Actually, that is what I've been saying all along. Neither you nor Sonic really has a motive. Why steal a piece of glass if you have your own diamonds?" She paused for a moment. "You still haven't answered my question, though."

Tails sighed, but gave in. At least Rouge seemed on his side. He figured he could give her something in return. "No, I haven't seen Sonic. He left about a week ago for some sort of trip. I have no idea where he is when he goes on one of his runs."

"Oh well. I suppose it would have been too easy." She reached into her pocket and pulled a small card out of it. "Here, that's my number. Call me if you get to see Sonic. It's easiest for you if you find someone who's been with him yesterday evening."

"Okay… if you call me when you find out something about who really did it." Tails took the card.

The white bat nodded at him. "Good, we'll call that a deal, cutie." She turned to MacDim and was already opening her mouth to say something to him, when a beeping noise sounded from some close to invisible pocket of her catsuit. Rouge fished a tiny sort of cell phone out of it and held it to her ear to answer the call. "Yes? … You are sure, Sir? … Of course not. … I have Tails with me. … Yes, I'm sure he didn't. … Yes, Sir. Bye." She put her phone away. She looked irritated, at least as far as Tails was able to read into her posture. "That was my boss. Guess who just broke into GUN's headquarters." She gave him a meaningful look.

Tails dropped back against the seat. "That's some kind of mistake."

Rouge shrugged. "I don't know. But for now I'm coming with you."

Tails opened his mouth to protest, but then figured it probably wouldn't help him at all. After all, Rouge was better than anyone else, right? "I can still go home?"

"Yeah. Nobody really wants to be accused of holding a minor, I guess. Just look at me like some random visitor, cutie." She smiled a little, moving to open the door of the car.

"Ma'am?"

The white bat gestured for the bear to stay as he was. "You have orders to stay here. Keep me informed in case something happens."

"Yes, Agent Rouge." The grumbling undertone said better than his compliant words that this totally didn't coincide with his plans. But apparently the bat was some sort of superior to him, Tails noticed with slight amusement.

Rouge obviously couldn't have cared less. She got out the car and waited patiently until Tails was all set with his full rucksack. "Shall we go?"

Tails nodded, surrendering to his fate. "Okay."

* * *

From where he stood at the island's edge, Knuckles could hear the waves crashing against its socket. Across the ocean, melting into a blurry horizon, he saw a coastline. The guardian tilted his head as he judged the distance. Probably a few miles. It could have been worse, but if he didn't want to swim all the way, he better started his glide from the highest position he could get.

Slowly the echidna turned around and headed towards the mountains in the formerly floating island's center, jogging. From what he could see, the forests hadn't sustained any serious damage during the fall, and the little animals had calmed down again. Knuckles hardly paid attention to the Flickies' usually almost enchanting songs or the beauty of the forests, though. He just couldn't get his mind wrapped around what just happened.

He couldn't begin to understand _why_ it had happened. Why _Sonic_? He'd known the blue hedgehog for years. He knew his attitude, his cockiness, his impatience, his recklessness, his tendency to make fun out of everything… He knew _him_. Or he thought he did. Didn't he?

For the past years, Knuckles thought he shared something with Sonic he shared only with less than a handful of people. While it was true they had been somewhat enemies on first encounter, they didn't stay it for long. At first, it was mere coincidence that made them allies several times. Common enemy, common goals, all that.

Knuckles didn't really remember when he'd started growing attached to the blue spiky freak and his little two-tailed sidekick. At some point they'd suddenly been much more than allies in a fight against Eggman and his latest plan of doom. At some point, he'd come along on their adventures because he wanted to. At some point, he'd been almost looking forward to their visits, to their attempts talking him into coming along for something like another Extreme Gear Grand Prix or something similar. He'd never let in on how little strain they would really need to invest to make him join them. Because he, dare he admit it, enjoyed the company. He'd always been alone. He was used to it. Heck, he enjoyed alone time usually. But there was something about being with Sonic and Tails that made it, and if just sometimes, more desirable than being on his own.

In short, Knuckles had thought of Sonic as his friend. Damn it, he even thought to the hedgehog he'd been his best friend after Tails. He'd been along for so long… and while he usually didn't admit it, he valued it. A lot. And he'd thought Sonic did too.

_Sonic_. Thinking the hedgehog's name was disturbing. In the first instant after thinking it, it'd trigger the mental image of his face wearing the trademark grin, followed by a few random memories of things he'd done. Memories of stupid things, unimportant things, and memories of the times when Sonic had saved the world alike. Memories of how he'd only half-seriously said thank you after fighting that Metal Madness monster robot, how he'd asked him to take care of Tails and Amy, the ones he deemed himself responsible for, after falling out of thin air with his first chaos teleport ever, how he'd tried showing Knuckles how to ride a tight turn on a hover board and fallen flat on his face, but had just laughed about it along with everybody.

And then, cutting through these pictures, came the image of the spiky blue shape carrying the Master Emerald off, faster than Knuckles could follow, and jumping over the edge. Away, gone. All of it. Like cut from his life with a dull blade.

Knuckles tried in vain to gulp down the lump in his throat. He didn't _understand_. Why, after all these things they'd been through together, why would Sonic do that? Why turn his back on him like that?

That he'd just taken the Emerald behind his back made it worse to Knuckles. He'd not even given him a chance to fight for it. He'd not even _bothered_ to confront him. Had not bothered explaining the why. Had Sonic been playing with him all these years? Had the smiles and the friendly little nonsense and all that been just show? Nothing but an act? Had he really been toyed with all that time without noticing? And Knuckles had fallen for it? Could someone, anyone, be that _dumb_?

Knuckles didn't know. He was aware he'd been tricked a lot. But he'd been younger. He'd been inexperienced, with people and their ways. Because people confused him. He'd never known people. But now? He'd been apparently fooled by the person he thought he knew best, by the person he thought he could _trust_ best. How could he, after knowing he'd been tricked so many times already, still be foolish enough to trust _anyone_?

He'd been tricked a lot, yeah. But all of those former times, it had never hurt as much. It was as if he'd been kicked in the gut from a direction he would have never expected. This time, he wasn't just an Emerald guardian that had his Emerald stolen and had to hunt down the thief. He was disappointed, hurt, and yeah, _alone_. More alone than he'd even been before.

The echidna bit his lip. He'd never considered being alone as dreadful... But right now it felt just that.

Stopping his absent-minded jog upon reaching his goal, Knuckles looked down into the deep crater, down onto the blistering heat of Lava Reef. Against the opposite wall of the volcano crater, he could see the air flickering in the stream of hot air rising from the island's core.

For a short moment he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath that smelled of sulphur and ashes. He needed answers, and there was only one person that could give him answers. He had to find Sonic. And he'd make him speak, be it the last thing he'd do. He needed to know why his best friend had suddenly turned a traitor.

Knuckles opened his eyes, briefly flexed his muscles, then jumped clear off the ledge and out over the crater. His dreadlock-like spines flared, catching air to keep him in a stable glide. After just a second he hit the first thermal rising from the lava below, and his stomach suddenly felt strangely light when it lifted him up. Gliding circles, Knuckles let the thermals carry him upwards until they grew weaker and weaker and he could clearly see the land in the distance across the water.

Then he turned away from the volcano and glided towards the distant coastline.

* * *

A hard and steady, hot desert wind was pushing against Sonic from the left. It didn't actually match the strength of the wind the hedgehog's own speed created, but it was dry and carried a lot of dust and sand in it. Hard to breathe, like sanding paper down your throat.

Sonic slightly shook his head. It was a weird thing that came with being born the fastest thing alive. While you could get everywhere pretty fast, it still took hours to get somewhere you wanted sometimes if it was distant enough, and a journey like that brought along traversing through various different zones, even through various different climates and seasons.

While it had been spring in the zone Sonic had spent the night, the tropical region around the equator was like constant summer, hot and dry here, hot and wet in the jungles further north. And once he'd passed those and would come near to his goal, he'd find it to be autumn there.

Actually, Sonic liked autumn. He liked the colorful leaves in the forests, how the winds would whirl them around. He even enjoyed, at least if watching from inside somewhere, the storms, the thunder and rain. There was something fascinating about it, something… mighty. He just better didn't tell Tails about his opinion. The little fox detested lightening and storms, almost as much as Sonic hated water.

Thinking of Tails caused Sonic to speed up a little again and half an hour later he had left the desert behind, crossing into less dry landscape, with actual trees and lush green meadows. Sonic smiled. Not far anymore.

Sonic slowed down when he reached the first of Mystic Ruins' hills and jogged the last part of his way. Something about coming here was almost like coming home, as close as the free spirited hedgehog would ever come to this sort of feeling maybe.

Tails' house and workshop that was partly Sonic's home as well was a building of unusual style to say the least. Built on top a hill overlooking the blue sea, it stood in solitude next to a long blank space leading towards the cliffs. Tails' airstrip for the Tornado, their biplane. The house itself was a strange mixture of living quarters and workshop, with small balconies on its roof, small ponds of water at one side, with wooden mechanisms agitating them, a small door next to it and a large, old garage flair portal for the hanger.

Sonic walked up to the door, not bothering to knock. To his surprise, it was locked, what meant Tails wasn't at home. The blue hedgehog shrugged to himself. In that case, he'd just wait inside. He typed a password into the panel sticking to the wall next to the door. A tiny buzzing noise chimed up when it unlocked and Sonic stepped inside the house.

He ended up in the hangar and workshop, a large room covering the complete first floor of the house, with a stairway at the far end of it leading to the living quarters upstairs. Usually, Tails kept his workshop tidy and incredibly organized, but today Sonic found himself faced with thousands of single pieces, spread across the floor, the working tables… Even to Sonic it was obvious where they came from: There was nothing much left of the Tornado but a hull.

"_Oh_. Looks like someone got really bored while I was gone," the hedgehog mumbled. Still, there was a good thing about this mess here: It told him Tails would be back soon.


	3. Broken Confidences

_Speedy's note: Sorry for the wait, guys. Wasn't home to publish this chapter on time. Originally, it was supposed to be much longer, but I decided to make two chapters out of the wall of text it became at the end._

* * *

**Broken Confidences**

Finding the messed-up hangar uncomfortable to stay in and the empty house kind of boring, Sonic strolled back outside shortly after his arrival. The day was sunny and the breeze from the sea not yet too cold to enjoy. He considered taking another little run just to pass the time, but then he opted for a relaxing little nap in the sun in front of the house instead.

Kipped against the treads of the small stairway with closed eyes, enjoying the warm beams of sun on his fur, Sonic was just beginning to doze off when a shadow fell on him.

His green eyes blinked open and he squinted up at the familiar red echidna in front of him. "You're standing in my sun, you know?"

"Is that all you have to say? 'You're standing in my sun'? After everything you did?" There was a deep growl in Knuckles' voice, something tight, terse and downright threatening, but before Sonic had adjusted to it, the echidna's large hands had gripped him hard by the shoulders and jerked him to his feet.

"Hey!", Sonic complained, starting to struggle against the unfortunately quite successful attempt at manhandling him.

"This is not the time for _heys_," Knuckles growled without letting go of him; instead, he drew the hedgehog so close their noses almost touched. "Just tell me why you did it."

"Did what?" Something about the utter ire in Knuckles' eyes was close to frightening, moreso even because Sonic had never really seen _this_. Angry Knuckles, yes. But not like _this_.

"Damn, hedgehog, I saw you! And I know you saw me, too," the echidna fumed. "So stop denying!"

Sonic coughed as he was shaken roughly. "I… have no idea what you're even talking about!" Mentally, he tried to go through the last times he'd seen the red echidna, trying to work out what he could have done back then that would still piss him off _now_, but he came up blank.

The fact that the Emerald guardian was still holding onto him as if he'd get ready to strangle him didn't improve the thought process either.

Knuckles grimly shook his head. "Maybe I'll have to help your memory out a little then…"

Before Sonic had the chance to try understanding what he meant by that, he was lifted off his feet as if weighing nothing and thrown against the wall of the house a couple meters behind him. His quills instinctively stiffened right before the impact and he slid down the wall relatively unharmed, but with his breath knocked out of him, and still very confused.

Knuckles stood unmoving, watching him slowly crawl back to his feet. Sonic tried in vain to read in the dark amethyst of the eyes focused on him, but there was too much in them to get through. Knuckles' entire stance was hard, as was his face and also his eyes bore the expression. He was infuriated, although Sonic didn't understand what he had done to haved caused it. And yet, there was something underlying in the look of his eyes, something… hurt?

"Man, Knuckles, what -?"

The echidna slowly walked over to him, watching him with sharp, narrowed eyes. "I trusted you, all these years. I saved your life. You saved mine. I gave you my friendship. And you – _turned around_ on me." Knuckles' fists were still clenched at his sides and Sonic noticed a second too late he was in reach.

When the echidna's namesakes smashed into his jaw, the hedgehog was lucky he'd not been hit with the spikes on them, but just plain fist. Still, it felt like the impact of a comet. Sonic was thrown to the side by the blow, colorful stars exploding behind his forehead and washing through the rest of his skull in a dizzying spiral as he crashed against the wall of the water pond next to the house.

Head pounding wildly, Sonic needed a moment until he managed to crawl to all fours. He warily glanced up at Knuckles. The red echidna stood next to him, watching him spit out a bit of blood, but he didn't move from his stand.

And nothing of this made sense. Sonic _really_ would have liked to know why he was getting a beating today. "Whatever you're thinking, you're wrong…"

Knuckles ground his teeth. "At least admit it… Traitor!"

Sonic pulled himself up, using the wall of the pond for support. "Then tell me what you're accusing me of!"

A snort. "You stole the Master Emerald!"

Sonic blinked, taken aback for a little moment. Then annoyance hit. "Of course, it's the shiny stone again. Isn't it always –"

A second later the hedgehog could tell this comment, at this time, had not been exactly wise. He was however so much expecting it by now that he managed to dodge the next uppercut so he didn't score a full hit again but Knuckles' fist just grazed by the side of his skull.

It hurt a lot nonetheless.

Down on the floor the third time in less than a minute, Sonic noticed with another short glance at the echidna he was in so far lucky Knuckles, unlike Shadow for example, didn't seem intent on punching or kicking an opponent while down. A remarkable notion given his temper at the moment….

"Knuckles, try to calm down and we can talk –"

"I don't do 'talk' with alikes of you. It's not my job talking to traitors." The red echidna glared down on him. "Tell me where the Emerald is and I'll come back for the why and for _you_ later."

Sonic again crawled to his feet, wary eyes on Knuckles. This was ridiculous, and he was starting to get pretty ticked off as well. "Listen, Knuckles. I haven't seen your Emerald in _months_!"

"Liar!" The guardian's spiked fist once more charged at Sonic, but the hedgehog was expecting it by now. Deciding he was more than sick of playing punching bag for Knuckles and his problems, Sonic dived away, felling the echidna with a well-aimed kick into the hollow of the knee as he passed him.

"Okay, fine! You want a fight? I'll give you a fight! It's not the first time I punch your lights out because you got something wrong!" Sonic stood upright, fisting his own hands as he watched Knuckles quickly get back to his feet.

Had he been angry before, now the echidna's violet eyes were blazing. "Good! Trust me, when I'm ready with you you'll not only tell me what you did with the Master Emerald, but be begging for me to finish it!"

* * *

"Beginning scan…"

The giant gemstone placed in the center of the laboratory was throwing its green light into the room around it, shifting the color values from the blues that dominated the entire base towards mint. The powerful radiation interfered with the optical sensory, causing spouts of static and flickers that increased in a frequency he had not yet managed to analyze to an intensity where it almost whited out the signal reaching his Next Risk Chip Series 3 Model graphics processor cores.

In spite of the interference, he didn't mind the radiation. Quite the opposite even. The way it bristled against the blue metal tektite of his outer armor was promising. If Unit E-S02 would have been able to put on a crazed grin, he would have adapted it by now. The way things were, he did not, but the red optics remained fixed on the gem in front of him.

The Master Emerald. The Master of the seven Chaos Emeralds. The most powerful object on the planet. He could feel this power, close to overloading his sensory, but it wasn't enough. It was never enough. Would never be.

Unit E-S02 was intent on having even more power to himself. More power, worthy of the mightiest invention his creator Dr. Ivo Robotnik, more commonly known by the name of 'Eggman', had ever created. Created in the image of his greatest foe, put into existence for the sole purpose of defeating him. His creator kept failing at his plans, but E-S02, codename 'Metal Sonic', meant to get ahead of him. He _would_, once and for all, _defeat Sonic_. He would prove to the world that he was the _real _Sonic.

He had been close once. Too close. But even after his humiliating defeat, after having been dumped and almost forgotten before picked up and overhauled by Dr. Robotnik again, Metal Sonic didn't consider a change of plans. He certainly _was_ the best of his creator's robots. Unlike the usual badniks, his AI wasn't based on simple algorithms. The series of robots that left Robotnik's assemblies every day acted based on their programming. It was basically a principle of action and reaction. They did what their routines made them do, and if they encountered something, they reacted to it, according to their priority programming.

Metal Sonic was different. His AI had never been designed to simply _react_ to something with two or three options. He had been given actual intelligence, artificial life and will, and was able to plot his own strategies and plans, adjust his actions. Out of all the robots Dr. Robotnik had created in his life, Metal Sonic was the only one that learned, and therefore the only one that would ever be capable of destroying Sonic.

And he had learned a lot. He'd watched his master through years of recurring failure, up to the point where he'd taken over his position to finally rid the world of his loathsome biological copy. He had not succeeded, but he had not failed, either. Deep down in his systems' subroutines, even after he'd been almost destroyed and reprogrammed to be another obedient robot slave, Metal Sonic's mind remained waiting, with all the data he'd gained over time.

Even as he was working for Robotnik again, he gathered more data, better data. He had improved his hardware until he was fully independent of Robotnik's bases. Without his master's noticing, he'd searched for a base of his own and finally tracked it down underneath the sea near the city of Soleanna, in form of a laboratory abandoned long ago. Forgotten by history and well hidden under the surface of the ocean, but full of advanced technology for his own use.

Now, with his own headquarters and no longer kept from putting his plans into action by idiotic schemes his creator came up with, Metal Sonic was finally able to begin to pursue the next steps of his plan. He had improved his cloaking device, fitted himself with hundreds of nano holograms that allowed him to take on the form of his hated biological counterpart perfectly, down to the structure of skin, fur and quills. Unless someone touched him, nothing indicated the polished metal underneath. This perfection of his disguise would soon come to take on a core role of his scheme.

Of course, it was already coming to use at the current state of his plan. In disguise, he'd been able to obtain the Master Emerald and get his hands on data he would require later and that had been unavailable from his creator's databases. Unfortunately, also the data he had acquired didn't completely enable him to carry out his plans to the full yet.

He would need to initiate the second stage of his plan soon.

"Scan completed," the voice of Aquatic Base's computer system informed him.

Metal Sonic didn't need to move from his stand to immediately download the results to his internal memory. Now there was nothing about the energetic properties of the Master Emerald he didn't know. Out of the three important objectives he'd had for it, one was served now. His final plan wouldn't require the gemstone itself. First of all, it would be bait for his enemies.

And then, the perfect, final trap for his greatest foe.


	4. Unwelcome Alibi

**Unwelcome Alibi**

The twenty minutes of train ride from Station Square to the very end of the railway line at the coast of Mystic Ruins passed in syrupy silence.

Tails tried to look occupied by staring intently out the windows, as if he'd never seen the landscape rushing past before and as if it was the most interesting thing he'd seen in a while. The truth was, he'd of course been on this train hundreds of times. He knew every bush, every hill, maybe even every flower next to the track almost like his own backyard.

But he didn't want to be staring at Rouge instead; it could have been easily interpreted as nosiness, or worse, a silent cue to start a conversation.

It wasn't that Tails disliked the bat. He didn't like her that much either; she was one of the people he had little to do with and that were 'just there', in a way. On every normal occasion, Rouge belonged to the group of people Tails would greet, maybe even a little happy to see a familiar face, then he'd exchanged some words with her, on what she was doing and that kind of small talk stuff, and then they'd go their ways.

The few times things had not gone like that had always included some kind of crisis that forced Rouge, her enigmatic agent colleague and friend Shadow and their robot comrade E-123 Omega to work together with Tails and the others.

This time it was different. Rouge wasn't around as a person he happened to know he'd met randomly, neither was she here in the role of a somewhat friendly ally. It was the first time Tails remembered the white bat really _felt_ like a GUN agent to him, although he had to admit to himself she seemed to be more on his side than her colleague or underling or whatever he was in Station Square. Tails had no idea what position or rank Rouge, or Shadow for that matter, held in GUN. Apparently it was a higher one that the dim-witted guy they'd left in the city.

Secretly Tails was glad about that…

Still, no matter how much more on his side the female bat appeared to be, she was a part of an agency Tails didn't really trust, and right now this agency was hunting down his best friend and sole family member. The two-tailed fox was sure it was a farce, or some kind of stupid mistake. Actually, Rouge seemed to think in similar ways, but that didn't change that she accompanied him not to help prove Sonic's innocence, but more like watching over him. It was like she was here to keep an eye on Tails so he couldn't commit any crimes. It made him feel like a suspect. Distrusted and somewhat humiliated.

So he kept his quiet and tried to ignore Rouge's presence. There was nothing he could have told her, anyway.

If the white furred agent minded the silence remained her secret; if she did, she had the decency not to show it and she didn't try to start a conversation on her own. At least Tails didn't feel like a criminal in cross-examination anymore.

When the train slowed down to stop at the final station, overlooking the sea, the young fox wondered what he'd do with his 'guest' once he got home. He was eager to get going with his work on the Tornado… but he wasn't sure how much of the technical details of it he wanted witnessed by a government spy. He wasn't sure at all on Rouge's knowledge when it came to technology, but he wouldn't like finding one of his newest inventions on a GUN machine that could some day turn against them.

Putting his rucksack back on, Tails slowly strolled out the train and continued down the wooden stairs. Usually, he shortcut his way home by just flying from the top platform, unless he had non-flying company. Rouge clearly didn't qualify as that, but his backpack was so heavy Tails didn't feel like flying with it and risk dropping out of the sky halfway down… especially not with her watching. That would be embarrassing.

Rouge followed silently, but when they reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over the grassy hills, she gestured around, a small smile on her face. "You know, it's not a bad place to live at you have here."

Tails smiled a little. "Thanks. I like to have my peace and quiet more than people around, so it's right perfect." He noticed only how that must have sounded to his uninvited visitor after he'd already said it, so he hurriedly continued in an attempt to at least look like a remotely good host and gentleman. "And the look over the sea is really great, too."

The bat nodded. "Guess I'd find it nice for a holiday here. On the long run, there's not enough nightlife for ol me."

"I'm not really the nightlife person," Tails replied.

Rouge laughed shortöy. "Anything else would have surprised me. I –" She was interrupted by the beeping of her cell phone in her suit's pocket. Stopping her walk, she reached for it and answered the call.

Tails had stopped walking as well, watching her. She said nothing but a few times of 'yes' before putting the phone away again, the expression on her face suddenly a little more serious. "What's it?", Tails asked.

For a moment the bat looked at him, one eyebrow raised, then she shrugged. "A blue, superfast hedgehog has broken into the science lab of the leading ring capsule manufacturer and taken all development material on the construction of these capsules with him."

Tails stared at her. "When?" It spoke volumes that he was way past the 'What?' at this stage.

"Just a few minutes ago." Rouge looked at Tails. "I think your pal's in trouble."

Tails shook his head. "There is some kind of mistake. Sonic doesn't do something like that."

The agent and treasure huntress folded her arms. "I don't really think he does either, truth be told. There's no motive. It doesn't make sense. But I can't help it, Tails. The Commander just ordered me to stay with you for now… And he wants me to search your house for something suspicious."

"What?" Now he was back at the 'What the heck?' stage again. Yes, they were making progress fast.

Rouge shrugged slightly. "I'm sorry, Tails. If I don't find anything, you're probably rid of me again. We'll just get over with this quickly, okay? Then you can have your peace and quiet back, and I can do something sensible. We're both not in the greatest situation."

Tails sighed. It sounded like a point, and it sounded remarkably sincere given who he was talking to. "Okay. Let's go…"

The unlikely pair continued their walk slowly, neither of them very eager to get to the house. They slowly ascended the stairway to the first blank platform next to Tails' house, crossed it and were about to take the next set of steps up to the flat top of the hill the building sat on when suddenly a tangled lump of blue and red blurs rolled and bounced down these stairs.

It rolled over the flat ground before hitting a rock and coming to a stop, revealing two teenaged Mobians. A red echidna was pressing a blue hedgehog down to the dusty soil with his left knee on the small of his back between the tail and the two arced spikes on the hedgehog's shoulder blades, and the large, white-gloved hand pushed the spiked head down. "Finally had enough, traitor? Just tell me where the Emerald is and it's over…"

"No luck, Red…" Sonic coughed a little from the sand he'd inhaled when speaking, but suddenly and quickly jerked his body to the side.

Apparently the movement was too fast for Knuckles and having been leaned onto the hedgehog he ended up falling forwards when Sonic was suddenly gone and jumping to his feet next to him.

Not slow on reactions himself, the red echidna rapidly scrambled to his feet, briefly lost his balance, was still quick to jump at Sonic again after he shook himself briefly, but the hedgehog stepped out of the way faster than the naked eye could follow. He jumped when Knuckles rushed past him, landing a flying kick in Knuckles' back that floored the echidna.

Tails stared open-mouthedly at the fight before him. He had totally forgotten about Rouge's presence until she spoke up. "Oh wow, looks like we came at a bad moment…"

Knuckles was still on all fours, his long spines a mess, but his head snapped around at the sound of her sultry voice. "You!"

"Way about giving a girl a nice welcome, Knucky." Rouge smirked, and Tails wondered how she could possibly find the situation funny.

"Shut up, Emerald thief," Knuckles growled, finally back on his feet. "I'll get over to deal with you right after I'm done with _that_ one." He didn't take the time to point at Sonic, but the way he launched himself at the hedgehog was totally sufficient indicating who he meant.

Sonic dodged the first blow of a spiked fist aiming for him, but the second that followed immediately grazed by his side, throwing him a few meters through the air and shredding to a stop in front of Tails' and Rouge's feet. Slowly he got back upright, holding his side. "Hey, Tails. Do me a favor and talk some sense into that Knucklehead, will ya?"

Tails blinked, studying his friend's dirty and bruised appearance. "Just what's going on, Sonic?"

"Ask _him_! He's the one who turned up here out of the blue, trying to make hedgehog pancake out of me!" Sonic pointed an accusing finger at Knuckles.

"Don't believe a word of what he says, Tails," Knuckles cut in before Tails had a chance. "He's been lying to me all the time; he might as well be lying to you! He stole the Master Emerald this morning!"

Tails felt his jaw drop. After a stunned second his mental gears resumed spinning, though. He needed a moment to close his mouth again, then he turned to Rouge. "He can't have been here and in this factory at the same time, right?"

The bat smirked, turning to the red echidna. "Knuckles, when exactly did Sonic steal your Emerald?"

"Right in the morning, not long after dawn. He probably came to the island over night to prepare himself!" Knuckles' violet eyes shot daggers in Sonic's direction.

"And how long have you two been here, punching each other's brains out?", Rouge continued, seemingly ignoring the hostility.

The question seemed to surprise the echidna and he finally interrupted his staring contest with Sonic, flashing a short glance at Rouge before looking up at the sun and checking its angle over the hills, head tilted a little in thought. "Half an hour, I guess. Why's that important?"

"Because you just gave Big Blue there an alibi, a quite believable one, actually." Rouge smiled smugly.

"I what?"

"What's she talking about, Tails?", Sonic asked, still holding his side and keeping a careful eye on Knuckles.

"GUN's searching for you, Sonic. They apparently think you stole some stuff from them. They think they saw you on surveillance cameras, yesterday evening and a few minutes ago," Tails explained. "But if you're here with Knuckles, you can't have done it."

Sonic shook his head. "Why does everybody accuse me of stuff today? First the police guys in Metropolis, then Knuckles, now GUN… Way about my holidays."

"You've been in Metropolis, this morning?", Rouge asked. It sounded like a random question, but Tails had caught the gaze she'd trained on the hedgehog. Tails didn't know Rouge that well, but right now he was sure she'd see it if Sonic tried to lie to her.

The hedgehog didn't seem all that aware on the hawkish look on him. "Yeah. Got there…. around nine or something." Sonic nodded. "Before that I was in Emerald Hill. I've been sleeping there and got to Metropolis for breakfast, but instead the police was suddenly hunting me down. So I came here to ask Tails what's going on, but he wasn't home. I sat down to wait for him, and then Knuckles turned up in the worst mood _ever_."

"That was very interesting, Sonic. It seems like there's someone looking like you going around stealing GUN's goodies," Rouge said, smiling a little and Tails again asked himself what about this was funny at all. "Oh, and your goodies, too, Knucky."

"You've no right calling me anything like that and… and… ", Knuckles complained, but to Tails' relief he looked to be in less of a killing mood by now, "… and I saw him!"

"What did you see, Knuckles?", Tails asked. "Are you sure, really sure, it was Sonic?"

"Of course, he was right there, running so fast he was a blur to me, and then he took the Master Emerald, held it over his head and ran off, to the island's edge. I followed him there, but I only saw him jump off the island and then he was suddenly gone!" Knuckles was still overly agitated. Tails could hardly remember a time Knuckles had gestured around _at all_.

The fox sighed. "Fine. How close were you to Sonic? Could you see his face, his eyes, things like that?"

"Uh, no? But it's not that he's easy to confuse. There's only one supersonic blue spiky guy around, right?" Knuckles shot Sonic a death glare.

The hedgehog however seemed much closer to calming down than the echidna. "Oh really? Just think about your story, will ya, Knucklehead? Since when do I carry the Master Emerald? Above my head, even? Do you even realize how _heavy_ that thing is? No? Well, it's _very_ heavy? I can hardly lift it, let alone carry it around." Sonic took a deep breath. "And I ran from you? All the way from the Temple of Chaos to the island's edge? And you could follow me? _Me_? You gotta be kidding. You wouldn't even see the dust in my wake if I _meant_ to run from you."

Knuckles looked about to explode again, so Tails quickly stepped in front of Sonic. They needed to get to the bottom of this, and another fight wouldn't solve anything. Hence, Tails decided to play shield. After all, if he was really to try it, the echidna wouldn't hurt him to hurt Sonic… at least that was what the young fox hoped. "Knuckles, _listen_. Someone's trying to make you and GUN think Sonic stole their stuff. We have to find out who these people are, okay? We will find out who does that, and who stole the Master Emerald from you, but you have to calm down, okay?"

Knuckles ground his teeth. "Okay… For you, Tails."

For a second, Tails felt his chest swell with the notion that Knuckles would step down, now, because of him. It seemed special.

Then the echidna continued and it gave a slight dent to Tails' short moment of awe. "But if this is a trick…" The look Knuckles shot at Sonic was hostile enough further words weren't needed to clarify.

* * *

"Do you want something to drink?"

Knuckles shook his head to Tails' question. The fox shrugged, more to himself than his friend. He was right now content that Knuckles was sitting down on the worn-out sofa in the workshop instead of trying to kill Sonic or something.

"Fine." Tails stood in front of the sofa, leaning over Knuckles' head, trying to clean a few bleeding cuts above his right eyebrow. "Were that spikes?"

Knuckles shrugged. "Don't know. Might as well have been some stones on the ground. But it's hard to dodge Sonic's quills on the long run, even if he doesn't use a spin." He took a pause before adding: "And the things are damn sharp."

"It's kind of the point." Tails smiled a little, not bothering to notice that Knuckles too was spiky in parts.

Knuckles remained silent.

Tails again wiped at the cuts. "But with a bit of work you'll look like new," he said.

It was a plain lie. With Tails' efforts Knuckles looked less dirty and the open cuts and scrapes would soon be neatly covered with band-aid, but that didn't change that he looked as if he'd been in a war.

Sonic didn't look any better off; at the moment he was upstairs being interrogated and patched up by Rouge. The bat and fox had agreed it was a good idea to first of all separate the two, and Tails had volunteered to take care of Knuckles and ask him about all the details, thinking it was better than leaving the echidna in his momentary mood alone with the white bat. It was a known fact Knuckles couldn't really stand her teasing attitude even on a good day, today clearly wasn't a good day, and Tails really didn't need another fight.

Half an hour later Tails sat next to an increasingly quiet echidna on the sofa. He'd told Knuckles in all details what he knew about what was going on – what wasn't much, admittedly – and he'd let Knuckles retell his day. Twice. They'd very thoroughly gone through everything Knuckles had seen and assumed because of it, and the more they talked the more Tails found Knuckles was seeming to shrink on the sofa. As if he meant to burrow into it. He didn't say anything, but something about the echidna looked pitiful. Suddenly he looked down to Tails, down and sad and tired and hurt and ashamed, all at once.

It was an unusual look on proud Knuckles.

Rouge came down the stairs at some point, announcing she'd get back to headquarters and report the events. She said Sonic was fine and for now not a suspect anymore, but the hedgehog stayed upstairs even after she left. Tails knew all the sounds in his house and he could hear him walk around upstairs for a few minutes before he picked up the sounds of metal pods being pulled from the kitchen cupboards and figured the hedgehog was making himself something to eat.

Tails sighed, looking at Knuckles on the sofa again. Not only Sonic was awfully quiet at the moment, and no matter what Rouge had said, the fox wasn't sure if anything would be 'fine' anytime soon.


End file.
